[Social-sciences-list] Math Teaching Techniques

[Gabias, Paul]

Hello Arielle,

I have taught a graduate statistics course at the University of
Wisconsin Milwaukee, in 1986.  
First of all, after 25 years of teaching, I would say this to you.  You
are most effective teaching to students when you teach in a way that you
are most comfortable.  Also, for graphical material, simply ask them to
bring their books to class.  You can ask them to go to the particular
graph or diagram or table that you want.  
A histogram is simply a diagrammatic  way of conveying the union and
intersections of sets.  But, if they don't understand the mathematics
underlying these concepts, they won't be able to solve any of the
problems anyway.  
Probability distributions are fairly easy to draw yourself, on the
board.  You have normal, (Z) T, chi square, and binomial.  Again, if you
want them to see how precisely they can look, then have them bring their
books, or hand out copies of what you want them exactly to see.  
I used an old Stats Book by William Hayes called Statistics for
Psychologists.  It is available in braille from the National Braille
Book Bank.  They used to be in New York State somewhere; Rochester, I
think.  You really do have to know what these curves look like yourself.
I have a stereo copier in my office.  If you need tactile exemplars of
these different curves, please let me know, and I'll send you some.

All The Best

Paul Gabias Ph.D. LL.D.

-----Original Message-----
From: Social-sciences-list
[mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
Silverman
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 5:43 PM
To: Blind Academics Discussion List
Cc: social-sciences-list at nfbnet.org; blindmath
Subject: [Social-sciences-list] Math Teaching Techniques

Hi all,
I was just curious whether any of you have experience teaching
quantitative subjects at the college level (i.e. math, chemistry,
statistics etc.) and if so, could you share a little bit about any
alternative methods you use for teaching sighted students? As a
soon-to-be psychology Ph.D. I am qualified to teach statistics courses,
but I've observed that at least at the introductory level, a lot of the
content is traditionally presented in a very visual way, i.e. with
histograms, emphasis on the graphical properties of probability
distributions, etc. I didn't learn that way myself and so I'm a little
lost as to how I would present this kind of material in a way that is
accessible to sighted students. How have you handled these kinds of
issues?
Best,
Arielle

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